Biting the hand that feeds America’s fastest growing crime
Be honest. Have you ever stolen at work? Did you take a little “petty cash” here and there? Fudged your time card? Did you fill out an expense report? Did you run personal errands on company time? Did you make Xerox copies while looking over your shoulder? What about those extra envelopes, staples, and paper clips you brought home for the kids? If so, you are not alone. The United States Chamber of Commerce estimates that almost 75% of employees steal from their workplace and most do it repeatedly. I was one of them
Last year, Janice Fernworn, 45, was the treasurer of her church in suburban Detroit. Over several years, she embezzled over $700,000. She had no history of other addictions. She was married and had five children. Fernworn said her embarrassment began when she and her husband were three months behind on their mortgage payments. “I still remember the first time I wrote a check that wasn’t legitimate,” she said. “My hands were shaking so badly I could barely handle the writing. I felt like I had exhausted all other possibilities. I don’t know when the embezzlement went from relieving true need to needing ease, but it wasn’t long.” before the hole was so big I couldn’t face improving it.” She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Why should loss prevention professionals care?
Most have heard of the recent Wal-Mart leak that simply revealed the trend of cutting loss prevention budgets and focusing less on petty theft and more on professional theft and employee theft.
In 2005 I published my second book: “Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Employee Theft Epidemic… New Perspectives, New Solutions” (Infinity Publishing). I also organized and presented at the First International Conference on Robbery Addiction and Disorders in Detroit. For nearly a decade I have counseled clients addicted to shoplifting. While “shoplifting addiction” has gradually found greater acceptance and understanding, the FBI recently called employee theft “the fastest growing crime in the United States.” Increasingly, I have treated individuals struggling with chronic employee theft and consulted with employers seeking to understand and reduce this phenomenon.
The American Society of Employers reports that 20% of every dollar earned by an American business is lost due to employee theft – $53.6 billion per year. 55% of perpetrators are in the highest level positions and the average time it takes to catch one is 18 months. The US Chamber of Commerce estimates that one-third of all corporate bankruptcies are the direct result of employee theft. And the Boston Globe published an article in September 2005 claiming that corporate America loses $759 billion a year in “time theft” whereby employees falsify time cards, take long breaks, dawdle on the Internet or on the phone, run personal errands on company time, and even look for a new job while at their current jobs.
Our work is hard and we need to work in a healthy and transparent environment. I was a chemical dependency counselor at a clinic for seven years and its director for two. Even in the “touchy” world of our profession, the workplace can feel like a toxic fish tank. We all come to work with wounds and emotional issues. We will act out our family dramas, dysfunctions, and authority issues in the workplace. Employee theft can be a cry for help, a wake-up call, a sign that something deeper is wrong. But rarely do we seek, let alone find out, what that is.
Many loss prevention workers have become obsessed with stopping the “professional thief” and may have a tendency to oversimplify why people steal or commit employee theft. Many could not care less why people steal. Too often we assume that people steal to support an underlying addiction and will stop when one “sobers up.” This is not always true. For many, theft is or becomes the drug. Many remain in denial or too ashamed to ask for help. Many still think of stealing only in moral, legal, or financial terms. “Keep working the Steps” is what many have heard and tried. Specialized treatment may be needed, but there are few books, few support groups, and few therapists who specialize in treating stealing behaviors, including employee theft.
Is it hard to imagine the many complex factors and motivations that drive people to steal at work? Job security continues to decline, while pressures to work harder, faster, and for less compensation are mounting. We have created a climate of resentment, distrust, disloyalty, even harassment. Surveys reveal that the number one concern for most employees is a lack of appreciation and recognition. “They owe me” is what many feel. Sometimes, as with Janet Fernworn, external events or problems are the catalyst. Employee theft usually starts small. Most don’t even think of it as stealing. The next thing you know, a star employee is led out in handcuffs.
A bigger social problem?
Millions of employees with employee theft issues go undetected or treated and could otherwise be helped. If a client loses their job due to a workplace robbery, therapy is usually brought to an abrupt halt. The shame and judgment that people face is unimaginable. People with a criminal record – especially theft crimes – will face great obstacles in finding a decent job. Those without work have no hope: addictions, crime and self-harm often follow.
Traditionally, most companies simply fire any employee who steals. While this is one option, it does not address the following questions: why do so many people steal and are there other ways to detect and deal with theft? Other factors to consider include: the costs of losing an employee who cannot be easily replaced; miss the opportunity to rehabilitate it and commit your assistance to strengthen loss prevention; and pass the problem on to a future employer. Most companies have some sensitivity towards employees with drug, alcohol and gambling problems. You can miss work, lie, do a bad job, even harass a coworker, but “steal and you’re gone!” Why is theft a holy cow when it happens so much anyway? “Thou Shalt Not Steal” is deep.
We need progressive education, prevention, and treatment for employee theft. I encourage to improve the management skills and moral strategies of the employees. I recommend that companies hold regular meetings, ideally facilitated by a neutral outside consultant, to air grievances, apologize, and express appreciation and gratitude to “keep the tank clean.” I suggest that confidential advice be openly offered to anyone who may have a theft problem. Most employers I’ve talked to care less about finding out who’s stealing than stopping them.
I spoke a few years ago with both the Director of Human Resources and with a head of loss prevention for a National Restaurant chain. I was told that their company looks at “the totality of the circumstances” when an employee is found to have stolen from the company. They were ahead of the pack in recognizing many employees who were likely to become addicted to theft. Often these employees were put on “internal probation” and placed in counseling. Is counseling or this novel approach effective? Long-term results of this are not yet available, but at least it’s a sign of forward-thinking. This company seemed happy to have one of the lowest employee turnover rates in its industry.
A recent client of mine was an assistant manager at a national home furnishings store. He is married with young twin daughters, has an MBA, and lives in a nice suburb. He has a long history of shoplifting, employee theft, and he came to see me after being arrested for stealing people’s cars. If ever there was a person who cried out for help, it was him. I theorized that he stole primarily in reaction to being sexually abused as a child and later traumatized in his early twenties by a robbery at gunpoint. His boundaries and safety had been violated and he was reliving this experience from the perpetrator’s point of view by violating the boundaries of others. The robbery of him was, in essence, a cry for help.
During our joint work, he also attended CASA (Cleptomaniacs And Shoplifters Anonymous) meetings. I gradually involved his wife in the treatment, and since she had become more of a mother than a partner, he rebelled even more. He reported feeling taken advantage of at work by his bosses and co-workers, which triggered feelings of abuse and embezzlement as a form of lashing out. His wife and his former therapist urged him to quit his job immediately. They feared he would be fired or, worse yet, prosecuted. I shared his concerns, but I was concerned that my client had no money or structure for his time, which also spelled trouble.
Instead, I created a contract with him to begin practicing assertiveness at work (and at home) while taking steps to finally start his own lawn and garden business that he had put on the back burner. Amazingly, in six months, he had quit his job and had more yard work than he could handle. His self-esteem and confidence blossomed. His relationship with his wife improved a lot. His journey to wellness continues, but he has made progress with the right treatment and support.
Another client was an Accounting Director at a Retirement Center. She had embezzled $50,000.00 from her previous work in the same position, but she had secretly managed to pay it back over time before leaving without being confronted. She recently embezzled $40,000.00 from her current job, realized she was out of control and sought help. Her husband knew about both thefts and he admitted that he helped her the first time by rescuing her with her own money. This time, on the brink of divorce, they knew they needed a different approach. Through our work together, we found out that she spent almost all of the money she stole on things for her husband. She did not feel worthy of her love and she feared that he would leave her as her mother had done when she was 3 years old. While major issues remain, she this time paid the money on her own in secret and she has learned to value herself without overcompensating at work or in her marriage.
I spoke on employee theft at the 2006 Michigan Financial Managers Annual Conference and also on addictions and theft disorders at the San Fernando Valley, California Employee Assistance Staff monthly meeting and at the 2007 Annual CPA Conference from Kentucky. Increasingly, people across industries are recognizing that we need to think outside the box about theft.
I hope I have helped shed some light on this issue of employee theft. There is more to him than meets the eye. This is a new frontier of theory and treatment. We need to be prepared to look at our own dishonest behaviors and explore these issues with our customers. My hope is that we will be at the forefront together to help create healthier individuals, families, business organizations and societies.